Peering and IXPs: how AlpineDC reduces latency for your traffic

Most users never see the path their data takes. Yet latency — the time a packet needs to travel from a server to a user and back — depends mainly on how many networks it crosses. AlpineDC reduces this number through peering: direct interconnection with other operators at Internet Exchange Points (IXPs). Here is what that means in practice for services hosted in Switzerland.

What is peering?

Peering is a technical agreement between two autonomous networks to exchange traffic directly, without going through a third-party transit provider. Unlike paid IP transit, peering is usually settlement-free and mutually beneficial: each network lowers its transit costs and improves latency to the other's users.

Take a concrete example. Without peering, a visitor on network A accessing a site hosted on network B sees their traffic routed through transit operator C, often hundreds of kilometres away. With peering, networks A and B exchange traffic directly at a local or regional exchange point. The path is shorter, latency is lower, and the traffic is less exposed to failures at an intermediary.

The role of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)

An Internet Exchange Point is a neutral physical and logical infrastructure where multiple networks connect to peer with one another. IXPs are not operators: they provide the environment (switches, fibre, interconnection platform) that lets members exchange traffic among themselves.

The main advantages of an IXP for a datacenter or hosting provider are:

• Lower latency: exchange often happens in the same city or region, sometimes in the same building.
• Higher resilience: fewer intermediaries means fewer points of failure.
• Efficient bandwidth: peered traffic does not consume paid transit capacity.
• Better quality of service: shorter paths reduce jitter, which matters for VoIP, virtual desktops (VDI) and interactive applications.

The IXPs where AlpineDC is present

AlpineDC operates its autonomous network AS198385 and maintains direct interconnections at four major exchange points:

SwissIX — Zurich

SwissIX is the largest IXP in Switzerland. AlpineDC's presence there lets us exchange traffic directly with the main access providers, mobile operators, hosting companies and enterprises connected in Switzerland. For a site or service hosted with AlpineDC and accessed from a SwissIX member operator, traffic stays in Switzerland from the moment it leaves the datacenter.

RomandIX — Lausanne

RomandIX is the exchange point for the Lausanne area and French-speaking Switzerland. For users in this region, latency can be even lower: traffic does not need to travel to Zurich or Frankfurt to be exchanged. This is a direct benefit for Romandy SMEs, local public institutions and real-time services.

France-IX — Paris

Presence on France-IX enables direct exchange with French operators and hosting providers. For Swiss customers serving an audience in France, this avoids transit through Germany or the United States, reducing latency to Paris and improving reliability.

DE-CIX — Frankfurt

DE-CIX is one of the largest IXPs in the world. By being connected there, AlpineDC can peer directly with hundreds of international networks. For traffic to Central Europe, Eastern Europe and beyond, peering at DE-CIX provides shorter paths than classic IP transit.

IP transit and peering: two complementary paths

AlpineDC does not rely on peering alone. Its network also uses several IP transit providers to reach destinations that are not directly peered. This dual approach guarantees:

• Global reach: IP transit can reach any destination on the Internet, even without a direct peering.
• Optimised latency where possible: peering is preferred for regional destinations and large European operators.
• Redundancy: if one path becomes unavailable or degraded, BGP switches automatically to another.

Latency and quality of service: what really matters

Latency should not be measured in general. It should be measured by destination, by operator and by time of day. A server hosted in Switzerland with a provider that has no ASN or peering may have excellent connectivity to some operators and poor connectivity to others. Conversely, a network peered at the major Swiss and European IXPs has short paths to a much larger number of destinations.

The following applications are particularly latency-sensitive:

• VoIP and video conferencing: beyond roughly 150 ms round-trip, audio quality degrades.
• Virtual desktops (VDI) and business SaaS: interface responsiveness depends directly on latency.
• Replicated databases: every synchronous query multiplies response time by the network latency.
• Online gaming, interactive streaming, trading: these services are heavily penalised by unnecessary network hops.

Security and resilience through a controlled network

An autonomous network such as AS198385, combined with IXP presence, provides another benefit: routing control. AlpineDC's network team decides which prefixes to announce, which paths to prefer and how to react to degradation. In the event of a DDoS attack or a transit failure, routes can be adjusted quickly without depending on a third-party operator.

This control is publicly verifiable. AS198385 routing information can be checked on:

• bgp.tools to visualise transits, peerings and announced prefixes.
• PeeringDB to view exchange points and peering policies.
• RIPE NCC for ASN registration and IP resource information.

What this means for your project

By hosting your servers, VPS or dedicated services with AlpineDC, your traffic benefits directly from this architecture:

• Short paths to Swiss networks through SwissIX and RomandIX.
• Fast access to Europe via DE-CIX and France-IX.
• Operational redundancy with multiple transit providers and multiple IXPs.
• Portable IP addresses from AlpineDC's own blocks.

These are not marketing optimisations. They are technical characteristics of an autonomous network operated directly by AlpineDC from Switzerland, and their impact on latency and availability is measurable.

In summary

Peering at Swiss and European IXPs is one of the most effective ways for a hosting provider to reduce real-world latency for its customers and their users. AlpineDC combines this strategy with a controlled autonomous network (AS198385) and multiple transit providers to deliver performance, resilience and traceability. If you want to understand how connectivity can improve the responsiveness of your applications, contact us to discuss your architecture.